Amazon Prime Day: E-reading deals

Amazon Prime Day is in full swing, and as you might expect, there are a number of good e-reading-related deals involved. Given that there’s almost 30 hours still left in the sale, I’m going to list some of them and hope that folks see some merit in clicking through.

Prime Day got off to a somewhat rocky start as Amazon’s servers hit their load limit and crashed early on. Not a good look for a company whose biggest line of business is server hosting, but the Slashdot Effect will have its way. Even as late as 7 this evening, I was still getting error pages about half the time I clicked through a link, but they seem to have gotten things sorted out at least somewhat. Anyway, it’s hard to be too annoyed when the error pages are just so darned cute.

I’m sorely tempted by that HD 10, even though with the HD 8 I don’t really need it. $50 off deals don’t come along so often. If you don’t have a Fire of any kind yet, the HD 8 is a really great device for that price—especially since you can install the Play Store and a new launcher to make it work even more like a plain-vanilla Android tablet.

Clearly, 16 GB is the sweet spot for those Fire bundles, since the 16 GB HD 8 costs exactly the same as the 16 GB Fire 7. (Pssst, get the HD 8, it’s better.) If you’re looking for Christmas presents for three people, and those are in your budget, these might be some good deals to buy and sit on for a few months. There are Kids Edition variety packs, too.

Needless to say, all these devices have Amazon’s Special Offers, which you might pay a varying amount to remove (or possibly sweet-talk an Amazon support rep into doing it for free). So factor that into your consideration. But even with that extra added cost, these devices are still well worth snagging at these prices.

Phone It In

Of course, e-readers and tablets aren’t the only way to read. In fact, given the sheer number of devices of different sorts that people use, they may not even be the most common way to read. But Amazon’s got you covered there, too, with a number of deals on smartphones and accessories. (Though, for whatever reason, selecting the “smartphones and accessories” category only shows you accessories. You actually have to search on the keyword “smartphone” to find more of them.)

Particularly worthy of mention is Amazon’s model of the Motorola Moto X4, a handy mid-range unlocked Android smartphone that is (at least theoretically) compatible with Google’s Project Fi as well as a number of other carriers. Amazon’s got it listed at $199.99 for Prime Day, which is $200 off Amazon’s theoretical “list price” and $150 off the price Amazon usually charges. (And again I add the caveat that this phone also includes Amazon’s “Special Offers” functionality.) While I use a different variant of the X4, with different bundled software and functionality, I’m nonetheless very pleased with it, and it makes a great pocket-sized reading device—especially at that price.

Also, you know Kindle First Reads, where you get to pick one book out of a selection for free every month? Amazon’s allowing Prime members to download all six books from its current selection, not just your monthly one, only on Prime Day. So, go click, get yourself six free ebooks you may never bother reading…

And Other Stuff

Seriously, there are so many things on sale for Prime Day that you can find just about anything you’re interested in. Earphones, chromebooks, televisions, battery packs, accessories—all you have to do is go to the Prime Day launch page and search on it. (Oddly enough, I couldn’t find any USB-to-micro-USB cables, though there was a USB-to-USB-C one.)

Still, remember to shop wisely—don’t buy anything just because it’s on sale, and if you’re planning on going on a buying spree use the “add to cart” function so you can keep track of how much you’re spending before you spend it.

And please, please use one of these referral links if you’re going to go and buy. It won’t cost you anything, but will help pay me back a little for writing all this stuff.

Find any good Prime Day deals of your own? Leave them in the comments, please!

If you found this post worth reading and want to kick in a buck or two to the author, click here.

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Published by Chris Meadows

TeleRead Editor and Senior Writer Chris Meadows has been writing for TeleRead--except for a brief interruption--since 2006. Son of two librarians, he has worked on a third-party help line for Best Buy and holds degrees in computer science and communications. He clearly personifies TeleRead's motto: "For geeks who love books--and book-lovers who love gadgets." Chris lives in Indianapolis and is active in the gamer community.
View all posts by Chris Meadows